Spoilers to follow.
My wife and I just watched this movie and we are beyond upset.
A woman, who obviously killed a man, is allowed to have custody of their child. Then, being mentally unstable, she kills the child and herself.
I’m so filled with rage. I have no idea how this can happen.
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:mad:
Has anyone else seen this? Anyone have follow up info. as to what happened to the judges responsible?
Yeah I saw it. That woman was batshit crazy, and when I call someone else crazy that is a bad sign.
Netflix kept recommending it due to my like of dark documentaries. But the fact that the documentary was supposed to be a note to the child about his dad, but the child died too, was horrible. I feel bad for the parents who lost a son and a grandson.
When the Grandfather talked about going out and killing the murderer to save Zachary, I understood.
Kill her, go to jail, and let the Grandma take care of her.
I wish there was a time machine to go back and kill that lady. Kill her dead and save that poor boy.
I saw this film at Cinequest, the San Jose film festival, in February 2008, where it won the Special Jury prize and an audience award as well. I believe this was the first showing after its premiere at Slamdance. There was a Q&A afterwards with the director and the parents of Zachary’s father. (He grew up near here.) I was so impressed with the strength of the parents. I don’t know how they could sit through that film, let alone face questions afterward. The audience was very supportive, of course, and many stopped to give them what words of comfort they could.
Why is it that people who are “crazy” enough to kill others & then themselves are never crazy enough to get the order confused?
I saw it with the boyfriend - we didn’t know what was going to happen. We ended up having a big fight that night that I picked out of the clear blue sky, just because it made me think too much about my evil half-brother who I believe to be a sociopath and his impact on our family. Sorry, sweetie!
I started sensing that the lady was going to kill Zachary about 10 minutes before the movie told us. I paused the DVD and told my wife, “I think she’s going to kill him.”
You could just tell by the weird phone calls she made and the way she was.
I’m so sad I was right. I still can’t believe it’s true.
One night I was home alone with my daughter. I put her to bed and snuggled up on the couch with the dog. I surfed Netflix streaming and found this doc. It seemed sad, but it got such good reviews, I thought I’d give it a try.
Two hours later I was curled up in a ball sobbing. I don’t mean I had tears, I was full on snot spewing sobbing mess.
The story haunts me. It was a really well done doc.
I just watched it after reading this thread. Emotionally wrenching - even though I knew what was going to happen.
I think the grandparents’ story was the hardest for me. A close friend of mine died unexpectedly of pneumonia a few years back, and this movie brought back her parents’ utter anguish at losing their only child in the prime of life. Like the Bagbys they contemplated suicide, and they just have such an aura of sadness around them now.
I cannot imagine how the Bagbys were able to endure such agony twice. They are amazingly strong people and I loved the fact that one of Andrew’s friends reminded them that they still had lots of children.
I saw this a couple of months ago and it certainly packed a punch. I think this movie is the movie most guaranteed to make someone cry.
I actually found it uplifting at the end though. Seeing how supportive everyone was and how great the parents/grandparents were made me think better of humanity as a whole.
I also watched it on Netflix Watch Instantly late last year and it gutted me. Absolutely horrifying story.
This and Grave of the Fireflies are the tops. I never thought Fireflies could be beaten, but I think Dear Zachary has actually surpassed it in my mind as the saddest movie I’ve ever seen.
Andrew Bagby just seemed like such a good guy. And Zachary was only 1 or 2.
Thanks for the heads up folks,because this is something I cannot let my wife watch. She will be a wreck for days, won’t sleep and will be depressed if it is half as impactful as everyone here says.
She won’t even watch The Cove after I “vetted” it for her and explained what it was, especially the very end.
I was also curious about the judge and googled her name. I found an interview with the director and he stated that he tried to arrange an interview with the judge for the film but the judge refused.
I also found a web page about another court case and this judge was one of the three appeals court judges. Basically, a woman sued a university and she won damages in court. On appeal the woman had to repay the damages she won and pay court costs. Link to Injustice Busters page here. The page is very long so I suggest you read the first few paragraphs to know what the case is about and then do a text search on the page for the judge’s name (Gale Welsh) to find her role. She’s mentioned somewhere in the middle of the page, I think.
I actually had to stop watching this movie in the middle; it was just too upsetting. And that NEVER happens to me.
Did you learn that the baby dies too?
They sometimes do get the order confused . . . then they’re merely suicides, and don’t get much publicity.
I hadn’t seen the film when I first read this thread. So I got it from Netflix and have just watched it with my partner (I hadn’t told him anything about it, and he was literally shaking when he realized the baby was going to be murdered).
Even though I knew what was going to happen, I don’t remember the last time I cried this much . . . probably after my mother’s death. And I don’t remember the last time I felt this much rage and despair . . . in spite of the ongoing acts of heroism by the grandparents.
I just watched this movie and now I’m an emotional mess.
I did not know that the kid was going to die. I watched the trailer and thought the sad part was that the kid was never going to be with his father.
Even when the news paper headline appeared on screen it still didn’t completely register until after they added the sound effects. The thought that Zachary wouldn’t end up living in the custody of Kate and David by the end of the movie never crossed my mind.
I started crying at that point. Then I cried some more when the narrator continued to talk to Zachary.